aalbrecht80

Last year, as soon as Doug Melvin believed that the Brewers had a legitimate chance of making the playoffs he went out and made the biggest trade of the year. This year he may do the same thing, maybe only a little earlier.

Jake Peavy turned down a trade to the Chicago White Sox last week and has said that he wants to stay in the national league, he also made a suggestion that he wants to play in "middle america."

In that case, what better place for him to play than Milwaukee, it seems to fit all these criteria.  Also the brewers are a very competitive team and with their wealth of young talent should remain so for quite some time.  

The brewers offered C.C. Sabathia $100 million during this past offseason and Peavy's contract over the next 4 1/2 years would be less than that.  Peavy is a bonafide ace just like Sabathia and if they were willing to ante up to try to aquire Sabathia I don't see any reason they wouldn't do the same with Peavy.  Also,with the emergence of Mat Gamel at third base a potential Bill Hall trade/salary dump seems more and more likely which could free up enough salary space to entice Mark Attanasio to open his pockets and make a serious run at Peavy.

If the brewers were to aquire Jake Peavy and with the core of players already in place, I believe that they would become chamionship contenders for years to come. 
 

A few things for team USA to think about before the next World Baseball Classic:

1.) Re-learn the fundamentals:

After watching teams like Japan and Korea play in the WBC it seems pretty clear that Team USA needs to get better at the fundamentals.  Things like sacrifice bunting, hitting behind the runner, baserunning and defense seem to have fallen by the wayside when it comes to American style baseball.  We have become too reliant on the longball and that style of baseball can't be successful against teams like Japan and Korea. 

2.) Leave the one-dimensional players at home:

One-dimensional players like Adam Dunn definitely have their place in baseball, but not in a tournament like the WBC.  They are much better suited playing for non-competitive teams in non-critical situations when nobody is paying any attention.  Watching Dunn play right field in Team USA's semifinal game loss to Japan was like watching a trainwreck.  He was constantly out of position, he misjudged balls, was slow getting to balls and in the eighth inning when we still had a chance to win the game he completely gave up on one ball which ended up costing us an important run.  Let's just leave these type players at home next time.

 3.) Find a manager who's decisions aren't swayed by major league baseball:

If we ever want to win this tournament the manager is going to have to forget about what's best for the players and their MLB teams, and focus on trying to win these games.  On many occasions in this tournament I heard the broadcasters talking about how the manager was getting a pitcher his "innings in" or getting a guy his "at bats."  I understand that these guys have to get ready for the MLB season but in critical situations that could determine if you win or lose a game maybe they should be more concerned with actually trying to win the game.

4.) Care more:

Throughout the WBC I heard numerous players talk about how much pride it gave them to wear the team USA jersey.  I couldn't help but laugh when I heard this.  Where is the pride in a team ERA of 5.99, or giving up against Team Puerto Rico and getting mercy ruled in 7 innings.  The truth is that these players could really care less about winning this tournament for their country.  They make millions and millions of dollars for playing this game, and when their contract is up they move on to the highest bidder.  There is no pride in American baseball anymore, it went away a long time ago.

Jay Cutler needs to look back at some recent history in the NFL before he decides to move on to greener pastures.  It wasn't too long ago that there was another tiny little news story about a star quarterback who got into a fued with his team's front office.  In that story the player left the team that he'd played 17 years for because he was angry with the team's GM.  For anybody who's been living under a rock for the last couple of years, I'm talking about Brett Favre.  I think most people would agree that his decision to leave Green Bay was a bad one.  Favre based his decision on spite instead of reason, alienating millions of fans and tarnishing his legacy in the process.  Fortunately for Favre, he has a hall of fame career to fall back on and his fans will forgive and forget.  Cutler doesn't have that, so he needs to take the high road and stay in Denver.  The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

 So far this spring there's been a few things that I've noticed about the crew.  First off,  I was a little alarmed to see that Prince Fielder has lost quite a bit of weight.  Luckily though it hasn't seemed to affect his power stroke considering he's gone deep twice in two games.  Secondly, Corey Hart has been absolutely tearing it up so far this spring.  Through ten games he's batting .429 with 3 HR, 3 SB, and a .429 OBP.  If he keeps it up maybe we will finally have a legitimate lead off hitter to set the table for Braun and Fielder.  Lastly, it seems like the Brewers are starting to play more fundamentally sound baseball under the tutelage of new head coach Ken Macha, which is very promising.  The pitching staff is going to give up it's fair share of runs, but if we can play good fundamental baseball offensively and defensively maybe we can make up some of those runs.
It might just be optimistic thinking, but you gotta have faith right?  Go Crew!